Death by Sudoku

Hollywood publicist and Sudoku columnist for an Oregon newspaper Liza Kelly finds the dead body of a client and fellow Sudoku nut and, by following a series of clues hidden in a rival paper’s puzzles, averts a major terrorist act and saves a young woman’s life.

If that sentence sounds ridiculous imagine my delight at reading what was essentially that plot expanded into a 199 page piece of utter nonsense.

I know many people think all cosy mysteries are preposterous but this is not the post for an argument about the worthiness of the sub-genre: it is what it is and as with most art forms there are good and bad examples of it. This is the post for me whingeing about how truly stupid this book is.

The plot is laughable. I assume even the show more author realised that her theme of sudoku was weak so she threw in the Hollywood element for extra interest. It didn’t fit with the rest of the book and it wasn’t any more credibly written than the parts featuring sudoku solving. Those parts mainly consisted of pages (and then more pages) of boring and unintelligible puzzle solving, a whole load of random guess work about which puzzles were meaningful and what the code was and a bunch of irrelevant elements borrowed from the plots of far better books (e.g. the clues are pointers to bible passages, the criminals are survivalists). I’ve no idea why the actor/sudoku fan “had” to die at the beginning (no connection was ever made between him and the criminals) and I’ve no clue why the person behind the crimes committed them. Most importantly of all, the plot did not even attempt to reveal why on earth the criminal mastermind chose such a ludicrous method to communicate with his minions (who appeared to be dumb as house bricks and seemed unlikely to have the mental capacity to tie their own shoelaces let alone follow a complex numerical code hidden inside a logic puzzle).

The characters are no better. Liza and her trail of beaus (1 nearly ex husband, 1 high school boyfriend and 1 current stalker) are all equally stereotypical and completely lacking in credibility. None of them, nor the dozen other forgettable folk that wandered across the pages, behave in ways that real people do. When the author got stuck on some plot element or other she simply gave a character some previously unexplained expertise in the subject so and moved on. My favourite example of that was when Liza developed advanced civil engineering skills to know where explosives would need to be placed in a public building to cause the most damage. Not bad for a woman who kept referring to her computer as a box.

I mooched a copy of this book on a whim because I do a sudoku puzzle or two every day (one of the things I do in a vague attempt to slow down the deterioration of my ageing brain) (in addition to wearing a garlic necklace of course) and wondered how the subject could sensibly be incorporated into a whodunit. I am left with two thoughts: (a) It can’t (sensibly be incorporated into a whodunit that is) and (b) I’ve never felt less guilty about not having contributed hard cash to an author in my life. Normally when I don’t like a book that other readers have enjoyed I am philosophical enough to know that art is a matter of taste, but if I met someone who thought this book was anything other than dross I would be seriously concerned for their mental health.

P.S. To those who are wondering why I bothered to finish such a piece of nonsense I had unexpected reading time on my hands and had once again failed to heed my own mantra (never leave the house with less than 3 books and a Swiss army knife) (although it’s just as well I didn’t have the knife as I suspect I might have gouged my own eyes out with it in an effort to avoid the book).

We should be able to give zero star ratings show less

Liza Kelly, once a prominent Hollywood publicist and a partner at Markson Associates with Michelle Markson, made a bold choice to leave her high-profile career behind after her separation from her husband, Michael. Seeking a tranquil new life in Maiden's Bay, Oregon, she has embraced a fresh start as a freelance writer, crafting an engaging sudoku column for the Oregon Daily newspaper. With a passion for puzzles, Liza has taken the exciting step of entering a sudoku tournament. As she arrives at the airport in Southern California, she is met with unexpected connections leading her to solve far more sudoku puzzles than she ever imagined—well beyond the tournament.

While I do not find solving sudoku puzzles particularly engaging, I was show more intrigued by the idea of a sleuth using her sudoku knowledge in an investigation. While reading, I found myself skimming through parts of the dialogue after the tournament, during the investigation, and several of Liza’s Sudo-cues columns. As a result, I rated the book three stars. However, I can easily envision the rating elevated to four or five stars from avid sudoku enthusiasts who will appreciate the clever ways the puzzles intertwine with the narrative.

Reviewer’s Note: Kaye Morgan is a pseudonym for Bill McCay. He writes Sunny & Shadow mysteries under the name of Claire Donally. I loved Shadow, with each mystery told from his unique feline perspective. 😻 When I read the Sunny & Shadow mysteries, I was only able to learn that Claire Donally was "a pseudonym for the author of many other critically acclaimed cozy mysteries." I was excited to discover his identity recently and learn about his other books. On some websites, the Sudoku mystery series is marketed as cozy mysteries; however, I present my review within the broader mystery genre due to the descriptions of a crime scene and the various events that occur during the investigation. show less

One and a half stars, but I'll round up to two. For all its faults, this book was mercifully quick to get through, so it does not receive my undying loathing. However, it is not completely off the hook for the following reasons.

- The whole premise of the series is rather ludicrous. I can understand a Hollywood publicist as a protagonist, but not a Hollywood publicist / Sudoku columnist. Heck, I can't even understand the Sudoku columnist part of it, period. Sure there may be different tips and techniques to solve these puzzles, but I don't think they warrant a regular column. You can cover them all in a book, probably.

- Also, Sudoku tournaments? Eye-roll! I was a very late convert to the Sudoku thing, so this could just be excessive show more skepticism on my part, but I think that kind of thing is really lame. I consider crossword competitions to be a bit more challenging -- you have to KNOW the things that the clues talk about, instead of just figuring out which numerals go in which boxes. And cryptic crosswords would be harder than normal crosswords, especially the British ones! So forgive me while I reserve my impressed-ness for the more hardcore puzzle-pagers out there.

- The way all the characters were ever so willing to help out the protagonist with her harebrained detecting schemes was even more ridiculous than the average cozy. And don't get me started on the miraculously useful knowledge everybody had. Liza just HAPPENS to have a codebreaking uncle in Japan who just HAPPENS to be up when she sends him an instant message. Michael just HAPPENS to know all about sailing even though he's a "script doctor" (as he refers to himself many times). I mean, he could very well have picked up this knowledge in the course of researching a script, but the way he actually acquired his knowledge was nowhere near as legitimate as that.

- If I had to read about someone's lips quirking into a smile one more time, those characters would not be smiling anymore. There are some phrases that aren't that great the first time but get REALLY tiresome on reuse.

- Way too much backstory for the characters that was way too clumsily incorporated into the narrative. I know that most first novels in a series are riddled with backstory to an extent, but this was just too much.

- The characters weren't really described all that well, and the aspects that were described about them didn't stick with me. The only one I could picture with any detail was Jenny, and she appeared in the form of Georgia Moffett's character on Doctor Who.

- Speaking of Jenny, that conversation she had with Liza where they complimented each other's looks and talked about being in front of the camera? Blech. Much too unrealistic. I think that was the part I was reading when my boyfriend asked why I was making such a horrible face at my book.

So to sum up, even if you're a Sudoku nut, don't bother with this book. There are much better cozies out there. show less

Liza Kelly left Hollywood to get a break. She went from a publicist to the stars to Liza K, Sudoku specialist for an Oregon newspaper. Only when she returns to LA for a Sudoku tournament does her life get back in the fast lane. One of her good friends is killed after he tells her he thinks there are clues to some crazy news stories embedded in the Sudoku puzzles. Now, she takes the puzzle by the horns and is forced to help once it gets personal. Along with her editor, her estranged husband and her high school boyfriend, she has to get down to solving business before more people die.

I picked up this book because I love Sudoku. My dad got me hooked on it a few summers ago. I don’t just stop at Sudoku though, I love crosswords and word show more searches and you name it, I’ve got a book for it. I was actually surprised how much I learned about the number puzzle in this book. There were solving tips and little explainers on how to get the hard ones. And that was on top of the drama and death.

I definitely liked this book and will pick up the rest of the series. It was written well, kept me on my toes trying to figure out the murders and the puzzles and made me feel like less of a nerd knowing there are other goobers out there who are puzzle dorks.

I give Death by Sudoku 5 bookmarks. show less

Liza is a recently divorced (or separated? can't remember) former public relations specialist who now creates Sudoku puzzles for her hometown paper. She's off to take part in a Sudoku competition when she encounters Derrick, a minor celebrity who knew her during her public relations days. It's a bit awkward for Liza at first, because she tries to keep her Sudoku and Hollywood public relations selves separate (Sudoku isn't exactly glamorous or cool), but Derrick is also taking part in the competition, so she enjoys the chance to reconnect with him.

Later on, Derrick mentions something about an apparent code he noticed in a particular paper's Sudoku puzzles. Not long after that, Liza comes across his dead body. Was he really on to show more something with his theories about the Sudoku puzzles and, if so, can Liza figure out who the culprit is in time?

Ehh, this wasn't great, and I'm surprised the series has 6 books in it. I was drawn to it because I like Sudoku puzzles, but it turns out it isn't all that fun to read about someone's thought processes as they solve Sudoku puzzles. The author tried to add another level of appeal to it by including the Hollywood and public relations aspect, but it didn't really work all that well together and felt kind of forced.

It's been a few weeks since I finished this, and I can remember literally nothing about Liza that was particularly appealing. I didn't dislike her. She was just bland, and even the author's efforts to (already) set up a love triangle between Liza, the guy she went out with in high school, and her ex-husband (soon-to-be ex? again, can't remember) didn't grab me.

The mystery wasn't very good either, to the point where there are basic details I've avoided mentioning because just laying things out feels like spoiling things. It took so long for Liza to make what I felt like were obvious connections that I thought I must have accidentally missed some explanation for why she was avoiding what seemed to be the simplest way to decode the puzzles. But no, it turned out that the stuff I thought was obvious really did just go over Liza's head (seriously, I only had minimal exposure to the Bible while growing up, how did Liza not figure this out sooner??). If the author hadn't been so committed to making the Sudoku puzzles themselves the mystery Liza had to solve, the clues they pointed to were cryptic enough that they could believably have occupied Liza for a while.

Although I bought this used, the Sudoku puzzles throughout the book were miraculously untouched. And yet I didn't feel an urge to do them myself. I also didn't bother to read Liza's 24-page Sudoku tips article at the end of the book. For those who do decide to do the puzzles, there's a solutions section at the very end of the book that's probably helpful.

It's amazing that something this short could still manage to feel padded. It was a relief when I finished this, and I have no plans to continue on with this series.

(Original review posted on A Library Girl's Familiar Diversions.) show less

I picked this book up because it was short, looked to be a light mystery, and I didn't really understand Sudoku and had never attempted it. The puzzles are integrated well into the book, and they include enough hints that the puzzles are doable even for someone who has never done one before. The actual plot of this book was a bit silly, involving a publicist/columnist, a TV star, an ingénue, a couple washed-up ex-football guys, and a ridiculous terrorist group. There are sub-plots involving a dog, office politics, and a small town love triangle. None of these is particularly engaging, but they're not totally boring either.

In the back of this book I saw that the publisher offers other mystery series aimed at similar audiences: One show more focused on quilting by Eugene Fowler, scrapbooking by Laura Childs, and two completely independent knitting series by Maggie Sefton and Monica Ferris. So if you're in the mood for a goofy hobby-based mystery, they've got you covered. show less

Liza Kelly thinks she is just going to a sudoku competition conference, but ends up in a murder investigation.

I personally loved this book. It's not that hard to read and is about 199 pages long. The story starts by giving the background story and once the murder picks up, you get sucked into the mystery as well. Even I really didn't expect the ending... (It is happy, though)..

Once thing that I think is this book's asset is that the sudoku puzzles are included in the book. So while you are reading about Liza doing the sudoku puzzle in the entry-level of the competition, you get to do it along with her. I also loved the Sudo-cues excerpt in the back of the book. It gives tips and explains the different sudoku techniques used throughout show more the book. It's very detailed and has examples to show you how to do the same. show less